Mileage Earning Credit Cards in India: 2014 comparison

Last year, I managed to put together a worksheet where I wanted to be able to help you all compare the various mileage earning credit cards in India, as per your spend patterns. Since then, a lot has changed in terms of products out there in the market. Some of these included the launch of the SBI/AI credit card, and the scaling down of mileage earning on ICICI Bank Jet Airways credit cards.

I’m now happy to put out version 2 of the worksheet, which you should be able to access via Google Sheets. Like always, here is a quick primer on how this works with a few simple inputs:

Step 1: You’d need to select if you are Jet Airways JP Platinum member or not via the dropdown menu.

Step 2: Input your monthly spends via credit cards, split as domestic and international. Exclude your airline spend from here, because airline spend is to be entered specifically per airline in another column.

Output: Taking your inputs into account, the worksheet will give you 3 bunches of output to look out for:

Comments

57th row shows monetary value right?
If I go by your worksheet without considering yields on my average monthly spends and consider only flying costs, Citibank PremierMiles has the best cost-benefit ratio, isn’t it?

@Raj, for each individual it may be different depending on how much you spend. The HDFC 9W MC Titanium may have the lowest cost, but it also has the lowest benefits like no lounge access, no free tickets etc.

I use the 3k fees option. Considering 27.5k miles is the only difference between the 2 options, I am pretty sure 27.5k miles comes in subsequent years too. I wonder why you are not considering the 3k option in the sheet.

@Rajiv, could you confirm with the bank and tell me if 27.5K miles come annually? The wording says “on joining”. I’ll go back and revise the sheet in this case. As for why am I not looking at the 3K option, in my view, I am trying to put as many cards there with the best offers they have, which in this case would be with the sign up bonus in my view.

@Shan, if I make it read only then no one will be able to use it as a calculator which beats the purpose.
As for Amex Jet airways, the fee is 10k plus tax when I check. If you put the Jet Airways Platinum Toggle to Yes, then it is offered free to you and hence the fees is 0 then.